If you could load your bike on a plane and had 6 weeks off, where would you go?

[PrivatePilot]

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Theoretical situation:

• You have 6 weeks off work with lots of flexibility and no job security worries.
• You have a comfortable budget that allows you to enjoy yourself without worrying about how much you're spending.
• You have the ability to ship your motorcycle anywhere in the world and travel with it, and then return you and your bike home again.
• You are there primarily to ride, but also stop and see the sights along the way.

Given these theoretical possibilities

Where are you going, and what do you want to see, do, and ride while you're there?

Me? Australia. The size of the country, the people, and the vastness appeals to me. Close runner up, New Zealand.

 

[Wingboy]

Iran. I wanna find the little Dutch chick and show her a few things.

 

[Jayv]

Follow the tour de france that would take up to 3 weeks. then off to costa del so and amalfi coast if time permitted.

 

[MacDoc]

Have to think about that for me.
Remember PrivatePilot Australia is 90% the size of the continental US with 10% of the population and no real mountains.
6 weeks? you need to pick a region. Also speed limits and crippling fines makes high speed slabbing very expensive tho 130 kph in the more remote areas helps.
For instance just to ride Cairns where I am to Brisbane is 1600km and that's in the same state - and the state goes another 1,000 km north of me.
Riders do circumnavigate Aus.

Which might be a goal for you. There's not much in the middle cept Alice and Uluru.

You can follow things like the Silo Art Trail to get away from the three big cities. We enjoyed chasing them in South Australia.


New Zealand is more accessible in terms of a substantial tour within 6 weeks, mountains are spectacular. We did most of it in 4-5 weeks by car with no long days.
We were Hobbit Chasing. There are lots of Youtube of riders taking on New Zealand.

I would likely take on rural Japan if on Mcycle.....I almost did a few days there instead of buying a scooter in Toronto ....life would have been altered then. Felt the value for money was in having a ride in Toronto to come back to rather than spending $2k on a 7 day bike tour in Japan. Did not turn out that way.
I think you can get a lot of Japan in 6 weeks tho not at any speed.

Vietnam is another potential tho maybe too hot.

You could consider starting in Machu Pichu in Peru then following the coast down to Ushaia in Chile. Only 10 hours to Santiago from Toronto. Very varied terrain paralleling the Andes.
Careful to acclimatize heading inland...this 15,500' in late fall...permanent snow line. I was struggling having driven from the coast in two days.

 

[TwistedKestrel]

Me? Australia. The size of the country, the people, and the vastness appeals to me. Close runner up, New Zealand.

I was thinking somewhere warmer than here, that's a good answer. I would pick New Zealand, Australia is more uppity about speed cameras and stuff

 

[Brian P]

Probably Spain. There's no shortage of places to go and things to look at.

 

[Lightcycle]

Australia is more uppity about speed cameras and stuff

They are, but only in the urban areas. Also, there are signs warning you where the speed cameras are coming up, so plenty of fair warning. They seem more concerned about actually slowing people for safety rather than shaking them down for speeding fines.

We had more fun than we were supposed to in the mountains and other rural areas. Some good twisty roads too and you can head down to the coast to get your feet sandy.

 

[Lightcycle]

• You have the ability to ship your motorcycle anywhere in the world and travel with it, and then return you and your bike home again.

Problem with Oz is that they have very strict regulations about importing your non-Australian vehicles into the country. It is a pain and shipping from North America is very expensive as well. You're probably better off renting a bike while you're down there, especially for six weeks.

In fact, if you really want to ship your bike somewhere, unless it's Europe or a handful of other easy-to-temporarily-import countries, you will be dealing with Carnet du Passages, temp import visas and/or hefty deposits to make sure you export the vehicle out. And lots and lots of paperwork. There's a reason why Air Canada Cargo/Westjet Cargo only offer flights to European destinations.

Better and cheaper just to rent. Plus you can try out other bikes as well.

As for Europe, I know you like slabbing, but most of the Autoroutes/Autovias/Autobahns are fee-based and the tolls can get quite high. Just a caveat. Most riders stay off the highway and take smaller, scenic and twistier roads. May not be your jam...

 

[Gaoler]

I could spend six weeks or even longer tooling around the Canadian Rockies...
'Not right now of course, but come summer it's where I wanna be...
This year I'll be doing 2-3 weeks...

 

[Lightcycle]

We've got two major areas left to cover in the world: South America from Peru to Tierra del Fuego, and Central Asia through the Silk Route from Turkey to Eastern Russia. Unfortunately, neither will fit within a six-week window.

If you subtract shipping your own bike from the requirements, there are quite a few places that are motorcycle havens (again, smaller, non-highway, twisty roads), and because of this, many of these destinations have rental agencies that cater to foreign riders:

Circumnavigate the south island of New Zealand
Gran Canaria + Tenerife
Scotland's North Coast 500
Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland
Japan has great roads and is a cultural and culinary goldmine
European mountain passes: Swiss Alps, Italian Dolomites, Pyrenees between France and Spain
Pretty much anywhere in SE Asia - Northern Thailand and Vietnam are two very popular motorbike SE Asian destinations

If you don't mind getting you and your bike a bit dirty:

South Africa has spectacular gravel mountain passes
Iceland
Tasmania
Dune riding in the UAE
Ecuador has amazing off-road riding and there are organized tour groups and rentals that cater to Gringos

Actually, now that I think about it, you can probably crib off a few ideas from existing tour companies. Edelweiss is the giant in this space, and you'll get some great ideas here:

Motorcycle Tours Worldwide | Edelweiss Bike Travel

Guided motorcycle tours since 1980. Experience the motorcycle trip of a lifetime with Edelweiss Bike Travel - worldwide the #1 in guided motorcycle and scooter tours.

www.edelweissbike.com

 

[Baggsy]

Isle of Man might be fun. Putter around, watch a race.

 

[MacDoc]

Gaoler - make sure to include the Northern TransCan especially in spring,

This year I'll be doing 2-3 weeks...

Lightcycle for PP

South Africa has spectacular gravel mountain passes

Western Cape out through Big Karoo and then back along the coast yeah.
Eastern SAfrica....nah

Iceland - not sure there is 6 weeks of riding there.

Tasmania - ditto.

However now I think of it
When you said Ecuador....
Ride down through Mexico and Central America and then ship the bike to Columbia and carry on from there down the west coast.

 

[Jampy00]

While distant destinations sound exciting, I'd stay right here and enjoy local destinations.

 

[Lightcycle]

Eastern SAfrica....nah

Disagree. The Drakensberg Mountains in Eastern S. Africa are stunning and is one of the most popular riding destinations in the country.

The Sani Pass into Lesotho is one of the most well-known ADV motorcycle roads in the world!

 

[MacDoc]

I bow to hands on . The Drakensburg are spectacular ( from a documentary )
Not sure PP wants the Sani Pass tho

 

[Sunday Rider]

Would love to ride all over India.

 

[Bobo]

I really like the southwest United States (Texas, New Mexico,Arizona). Absolutely spectacular scenery. Met a lot of interesting, friendly people. A good time to go is mid/ late October or spring. It can get pretty hot any other time. I was in that region last year in late September/early October and it was hitting 43 degrees Celsius, way too hot on a bike unless your in the mountains. Best part is you don’t need a plane to get there. You can usually get out of the cold Ontario spring weather in a good one day ride to Kentucky and it’s smooth sailing south of there. A few years ago I left Toronto in the first week of April on my ST1300 and froze the first day all the way to Louisville, Kentucky. Woke up the next day and it was absolutely beautiful. I spent the next two weeks riding in a t-shirt. Try to hit the Barber Motorcycle Museum on the way down there. Words cannot do that museum justice, you have to see it to believe it.

 

[AllistonGT]

Me? Australia. The size of the country, the people, and the vastness appeals to me. Close runner up, New Zealand.

We were just there for about 10 days each. All I could think about was what a great place to ride. Since my daughter lives there I'm thinking of making that happen. Though I would just rent. Great Ocean Road is amazing.
I was surprised at the amount of bikes on the road. Didn't seem like that many.

Scotland close second.

 

[JZ67]

6 weeks, huh?

Fly into Spain and take the long way to the UK through France, up and down and up again through Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France again and into the UK to fly home.

 

[PrivatePilot]

6 weeks? you need to pick a region. Also speed limits and crippling fines makes high speed slabbing very expensive tho 130 kph in the more remote areas helps.
For instance just to ride Cairns where I am to Brisbane is 1600km and that's in the same state - and the state goes another 1,000 km north of me.

You forget that I'm weird and like to ride 1000+km days.

The entire country can be circumnavigated in 9 days if you go full potato even. So 6 weeks would be a pokey pace comparatively. And I think a circumnavigation would be what I'd do, but probably use 2 or 3 of the 6 weeks for that for a more sane pace, and spend the other 3 exploring the more interesting bits along the way.

Also, there are signs warning you where the speed cameras are coming up, so plenty of fair warning. They seem more concerned about actually slowing people for safety rather than shaking them down for speeding fines.

There's lots of warning signs here too that literally tell you that you're coming up to a camera, yet people still yell about them being "cash cows", but that's another story for another thread.

Problem with Oz is that they have very strict regulations about importing your non-Australian vehicles into the country. It is a pain and shipping from North America is very expensive as well.

I get it, but I'm throwing this at the wall from a mostly theoretical standpoint where technicalities like this don't apply.

While distant destinations sound exciting, I'd stay right here and enjoy local destinations.

To each their own, but with so many amazing places to see (and ride) around the world I'd have a tough time saying I'd rather spend 6 weeks bombing around our flat boring roads here in Ontario.

The French Alps, for example...which come to think of it in hindsight, might actually tie New Zealand for a second place if I was putting scenery before sheer adventure.

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